The aim of this project is to establish normative values and milestones during the child’s development from conception to adulthood that serve as indicators and provide alarms for developmental abnormality.
Summary
The central focus of the program is to discover why one child develops optimally and another does not. The project includes data collection of participating children in various health institutions from pregnancy through young adulthood. The data collected will include information on areas of growth (behavioral and cognitive) and the influence of environmental parameters. The project is modeled after the Generation R Study, which was based upon the success of the highly acclaimed Rotterdam Epidemiology Program (The Rotterdam Study). The results of this study will help to formulate statistics for improving the health and welfare of children, and ultimately develop strategies to minimize the occurrence of disability among vulnerable populations. Additionally, a training program will be developed in order to increase capacity building in the required professional areas.
Our collaborator for this project is the Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands; an innovative academic medical center for high-quality knowledge development, training and care in the field of illness and health. Other partners include the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and other leading health institutions in the Kingdom.